Is He Really That Dense?
by LuciferIX
Summary: A little bit of poking fun at Ash after he's done with the Sinnoh League. Mostly just a small idea that hit me. Advanceshipping, SatoHaru, AAMayL
1. My Good Luck Charm

Okay so I got another idea for a story, not the best one but I guess it will be fun. If you can't take a quick guess by the title this fic, at the moment it's based on making a little bit of fun at Ash's inability to notice any type of attraction towards him. Oh and FYI, it's in his POV as per my current pattern.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokèmon in any way whatsoever.

* * *

Amid the many screams that saturated the stadium I looked upon the battlefield in horror as my closest friend was being beaten down by the many large vines that were currently jutting out of the ground. An equally large turtle with a tree growing out of its back stood on the other side of the field with his trainer grinning ear to ear.

_"Pikachu should never have had to been the one for this fight. He has too much of a disadvantage. If I had my choice Infernape would be the one who would be finishing this battle for me right now, but he was barely overpowered only a few minutes ago. Pikachu…"_

"Please Pikachu, hang in there! Use Agility to avoid those vines!" I yell out to him. But it was no use, Pikachu was too tired to do anything but dodge and even that was starting to fail him.

"Torterra use Earthquake to slow its movements." Paul commanded as his smile continued to grow. The Continent Pokèmon obeyed it master and with a sharp strike to the ground with one of his massive legs the entire stadium started to shake. Fissures started to appear around the field, and they achieved the exact effect that he wanted. Pikachu now had to worry about not falling into or tripping over the fissures created in addition to the vines that were chasing after him, thus splitting his attention and slowing him down.

Feeling crushed by the ensuing cries that came from the audience, I tried to put them all aside to focus myself. But in doing so I thought I was able to pick out a familiar voice, the voice was soothing and I could feel my determination and resolve returning even in this time of desperation.

"Pikachu strike him hard with an Iron Tail! Show Paul that we won't give up that easily!"

"Pika!" Pikachu rushed forward with his tail starting to glow white, the only attack he had that could affect the massive opponent that stood before him.

Paul's smile started to fade, "Even in the grip of defeat you continue to defy fate. So childish, learn your place in the world. Torterra, finish that rodent off with another Frenzy Plant."

Torterra's eyes started to glow green as the vines began to sprout out of the ground yet again. As Pikachu neared his target, dodging the many vines that came his way, he jumped over one of the many fissures, but as he did a vine came out of the crack and grabbed him. Pikachu was able to squirm out of its grasp but the damage was already done, in the time it took for him to get free all of the other vines were able to get to that point and close in on him. I almost couldn't watch as they started to engulf him. And finally I couldn't take any more.

"Stop the battle!" I yell to the judge as I run out on the field to my fallen friend. "Please, stop the battle! No victory is worth hurting Pikachu to this degree."

The judge nodded and made the official decision. "This battle is over. The red trainer had forfeited the match and thus has conceded victory to the green trainer, the winner of this battle and the trainer continuing on to the final round, Paul of Veilstone City!"

As I finally reached the place where Pikachu was, Torterra's vines started to loosen from around his body. Pikachu was still conscious but nowhere near a good enough state where he could walk on his own. I picked him up and started to walk to the trainer's prep room. I ignored all of the cheers that erupted from the crowd at the announcement at Paul's victory. If they only knew his true nature like I did then they wouldn't be cheering for his victory. But that was the least of my worries, at the moment I had six injured Pokèmon to take care of.

As I walked into the trainer's prep room and sat down I was greeted by my current traveling companion, Dawn. Brock had left some time ago to become an apprentice to some famous breeder, so ever since then it has just been me and Dawn. She had a sympathetic look on her face, but sympathy was the last thing that I wanted.

"Hey Dawn, guess I lost this one." I said giving a fake smile. I tried to keep my spirits up so that Dawn wouldn't start into her usual routine when I lost. It didn't work.

"Sorry about your loss Ash. I wish that you could have at least lost to anyone but him." Dawn started with in a slow tone. Every time that I lost she would be trying to use the same method to cheer me up, and every time it wouldn't work as she hoped it would. I would just fake my way out of it and deal with it by myself. "But I think that I found a way that definitely will cheer you up." As she said this a big smile formed on her face.

_"Huh? No usual 'Don't worry, it'll be alright' speech? What's she planning?"_ I never did like that smile. It always meant that she had something planned or was in the process of being planned, and either way it was never good.

"She says that she is an old friend of yours, I found her wandering around the stadium this morning after you left."

"_She?"_ I thought. As far as I knew there was no one else that was going to come and see me during today's battle, although there was one person that came to mind. She always seemed to bring me luck in my battles for some reason, because I could always hear her voice cheering for me and her cheers would usually help spur me on in battle. No matter how many people may have been present, I could always pick her voice out from all the rest. And because of this I started to consider her my good luck charm.

Dawn probably sensed my hesitation. "I think that its time to bring her in. You can come out now!' She called.

From the door to the hallway a tall blue eyed brunette stepped into the room. I instantly knew who it was.

"May? What are you doing here?" I asked as I got up to greet my old friend, handing Pikachu to Dawn in the process. My loss only a minute ago completely left my mind.

"Hey Ash, long time no see." She replied with a shy smile. "I wanted to surprise you as you made your victory in the Sinnoh League, but neither turned out as I was hoping. First of all I got here early and now you lost after you finally got to the semifinals. Sorry Ash." She then pulled me into a friendly hug, for some reason I suddenly felt at ease and I didn't resist it in any way.

"What are you talking about? You shouldn't be sorry; you had no part in my loss today. But I am glad that you came all the way over here to cheer me on." I say while returning the smile, but this time it was a genuine smile not forced in any way whatsoever.

_"Although I wish that I could have shown her how much better I have gotten with a win. Would the outcome have been any different if I had known she was here and cheering for me? My good luck charm and best friend is standing right in front of me and I don't know what else to say."_

"You know your cheerleading squad isn't allowed in here."

I turned around towards the voice and saw Paul standing near the entrance to the battlefield, his face not betraying even the slightest emotion.

"But then again someone as weak as you needs all the help they can get." He said giving a smug smile.

"Watch it Paul. I don't need any type of lecture from you." I snapped at him. "At least my Pokèmon trust me and value my friendship."

"And that's why you will never be able to beat me. You are doing nothing but degrading their already pitiful potential."

At that last comment I virtually lost it. "You can badmouth me all you want, you can call me names, degrade my reputation, even hit me if you want to." As I ranted on I could feel myself start to tense up. May, still holding on to my arm, probably felt it as well because I could feel her grip on my arm start to tighten.

"Ash, we should probably go." She whispered. Part of me knew she was right but reason just wasn't winning this battle.

"You should listen to your little girlfriend; this is way over your head." Paul sneered.

"Shut up Paul. The moment that you start to talk down to my Pokèmon is when you've taken one step too far." Without thinking I tried to lunge at Paul, my rage getting the better of me. But at that moment I didn't care, he had insulted my Pokèmon. We had tried so hard to get where we were today and nobody, not even him, would get me to say anything less. As I started to lunge at him I suddenly felt more pressure on my right arm, and just after I could fell someone holing on to my left arm as well. I was about to try and pull free from my restraints but as I looked back I could see Dawn and May holding onto my arms. They both had very surprised looks on their faces, both surprised and worried.

Seeing the girls' faces allowed me to snap back into reality, and realizing what was exactly happening started to scare me as well. I never acted like this, I suddenly felt ashamed of what I just did, even more so because two of my close friends had to watch me do it. It took a few seconds but after some deep breaths I found that I was able to calm down. I looked back at Paul who even after my outburst hadn't moved a muscle.

"My Pokèmon and I have trained hard to get to where we are today. And with their faith in both me and their own abilities we have achieved the impossible. I doubt that you can say that about your Pokèmon."

"If I ever brought myself to that level I would quit as a Pokèmon trainer. And besides depending on others only shows your own weaknesses." Paul said as he got up to leave the room. When he finally left May and Dawn finally released their grip on my arms, May walked over to the chair that Dawn set Pikachu on and picked him up into her arms.

"Sorry guys. I just don't know what came over me. There's just something about him that can get me to that point. And what's worse is that Infernape almost defeated three of his Pokèmon, yet Paul would still never admit that a Pokèmon he released would turn out to be such a powerful and loyal Pokèmon." I couldn't even look either of them in the eye.

"Ash, it's okay. We understand." May came up with Pikachu asleep in her arms. "There is a reason we are called your friends."

"Come on. We should get your Pokèmon to the Pokèmon Center. We can talk more about this tonight over food." Dawn added in.

"You guys know exactly how to try and cheer me up. You're right; there are more important things to worry about right now."

* * *

Forgetting about my current standing for the tournament was a lot easier with more than just Dawn there to support me, but even if it made it easier didn't mean that it was out of my mind. We made our way to the Pokèmon Center, just the three of us, not really talking to each other at that moment. But out of everyone there was only one of us seemed to be in a truly happy mood. Pikachu seemed to enjoy being reunited with May just as much as I did because by the time we reached the center he was actually up and about, even if it wasn't at his usual energy level. But even if Pikachu had the energy to move around he seemed to be content to stay in May's arms. Because of this I figured that it would be just as good to stay with us as we ate and only left my other five Pokèmon with Nurse Joy, I also asked her to send the Pokèmon to Professor Oak's lab afterwards figuring that I wouldn't be needing them anytime soon.

"So where do you guys want to eat?" I asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Knowing you Ash we will probably need to be going to a buffet, because otherwise the amount of food that they would need would put them out of business." Dawn said with a small laugh.

"So his appetite hasn't changed even the slightest, even from over year ago, huh?" May added. "Typical Ash."

At that both girls started to try to hold back their laughter. While watching them start to laugh, I could feel myself starting to relax again.

"May if you've already forgotten, you eat just as much as I do. So I won't let you make fun of me while you get off with nothing. And I know more than enough to embarrass you right now in front of Dawn.' I said giving knowing smile.

"And I could say the same thing to you Ash," she shot back, "remember we didn't travel together that long without learning a lot about each other."

"Fine then, I'll stop if you will."

"Deal."

"If you two lovebirds are done arguing, I think we should just go here." Dawn said interrupting our little argument, but there was something in there that instantly caught my attention.

"Lovebirds!?" Both May and I nearly shouted.

"What makes you think that we are together?" I asked Dawn.

"Y…ya, what makes you say that?" May stuttered. But as she did I thought I noticed a slight tinge of red start to appear on her cheeks.

"Relax, it was just a joke." Dawn said trying to clam us down. "I just said that because you two kinda look like a couple when you argue. I didn't really mean anything with it, unless it actually is true."

"No, it's nothing of the sort." I respond honestly. "You just always have had too much of an imagination."

"Ya, there's nothing at all." May said slowly looking down on Pikachu and pulling him closer to herself. He cooed and snuggled deep into her arms. I'm not sure if it was just me but it almost sounded as if May was disappointed in saying that, but it must have just been my imagination. Why would she be disappointed about something like that?

"Alright now that that's been settled, can we eat?" Dawn repeated.

I finally looked up at the place that she pointed out.

_"A buffet, I didn't think that she was serious."_

Sitting right in front of us was a Chinese Buffet. Why she picked this place of all reasons, I had no clue. But at the moment my stomach was telling me to not be picky, and it said it out loud.

"At least Ash's stomach approves." Dawn said once again trying to hold back her laughter.

"Alright if we're going to eat, let's eat." I say as I walked into the restaurant, trying to end the current topic.

As we got into the restaurant and were seated I could feel myself get hungrier by the second. Being a buffet it didn't take long for us to get a plate so that we could finally eat. As I filled my plate with the various pieces of food available I started to take inventory on my current situation.

_"Okay so maybe the buffet idea wasn't that bad of an idea, but I still have a feeling that Dawn brought me here just to make fun of me. Now that the tournament is over what am I going to do? So I guess there's nothing really left for me to do here in Sinnoh. I might as well head back home today. If I can catch the mid-afternoon ferry I should be able to make it back to Pallet by nightfall. I wonder what Dawn and May will do after this? May came all this way just to see my battle, but all she saw today was me losing. I just hope that she isn't too disappointed about coming up here for nothing."_

As I walked back to our table I found that I was the last one to get all of my food. When I got close enough to the table I noticed that Dawn and May were talking to each other in a low whisper. They didn't even notice me as I approached them.

"So what are you two talking about?" I ask as I sit down. Both jumped a little at the sound of my voice.

"Ash! You're back!" May exclaimed, she was obviously nervous about something.

I just gave here a confused stare. "Ya I figured it would be easier to sit down as I ate. So what were you talking about?" I repeated.

"Well nothing much." She answered with a nervous laugh. "Mostly about what we would be doing after this. Any ideas?"

Dawn didn't say anything during the small conversation, but she did wear that unnerving smile that I hated. But her first time using that today actually had good results for once so I didn't feel as worried about it as I usually did.

"I was actually just thinking of the exact same thing. Seeing as how there is no reason for me to stay here in Sinnoh I figured that my first route is to head home so I can have time to think more clearly about the issue. How about you two? Seeing as how the finals for the Super Contest are over as well there isn't as much for either of you as well."

"Well I will just go with you Ash." May said as her face started to turn a little red. "If that alright by you of course." She added quickly. "I don't have anything planned right now, and I had so much fun during our last journey I figured that we could do that again."

"I might head home as well," Dawn started. "But heading over to Kanto with you two sounds more fun, and with these new details I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

"Dawn!" May glared at her after giving a harsh whisper.

"Details about what?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"It's not important." May said rather quickly. "So how are you planning to get back to Pallet then?"

"The Seagallop Ferry service just started runs from the Sinnoh Pokèmon League Port system to Kanto and Johto."

"I know that they ran here from Johto, but I didn't realize they went to Kanto as well."

"Ya they run to both Vermilion City and Pallet Town. They dock at Pallet mostly to accommodate the Indigo League trainers, but that makes it convenient for me and a lot of other people as well. If we can catch the mid-afternoon ferry, we should be able to reach Pallet by tonight."

"Sounds like a good plan. We should finish up and head over there then." Dawn said as she finished the last of her food. "Plus I've never been outside of Sinnoh before so this entire trip should be great!"

"Right." May responded. "How about you Pikachu? You feeling better?"

"Pikachu." He nodded, stretching himself out in May's lap, and then just relaxed back into his original position.

"Glad to hear you're doing better Pikachu. Do you want to ride with me to the ferry?" I ask him as I stuff the last of my food down.

"Pika Pika."

"No? What do you mean no? Why May over me?"

"Oh come on Ash, don't get mad just because he chose me over you. Besides we need to catch that ferry." May then got up with Pikachu in her arms and started to walk out of the restaurant.

"Wait up May!" Dawn called as she ran out as well.

"Don't leave me here!" I call back, but I was quickly grabbed on the shoulder. I look back and see one of the employees standing behind me.

"You're not trying to get out of you bill now are you?"

"Of course not, it just accidentally slipped my mind for a moment." I say with a nervous laugh.

"And your bill will include your two friends as well."

"_Great, and just when I was starting to feel better."_ I think as I hand over the correct amount to him.

"Thank you sir, we hope to see you again." The guy said after counting out the cash.

After paying the guy I ran out the door to catch up to the girls. A couple minutes later I was able to catch up to them, but they seemed so happy about going to Pallet I figured that a few extra dollars wasn't worth bothering them over. And we could see the port coming up in the distance anyways, so there would be other things to worry about.

It didn't take long to get to the ticket booth. There was a young woman working there currently helping another couple of passengers.

"Good thing that Brock isn't here, otherwise we might actually miss the ferry because of her." I heard Dawn whisper to May while discretely pointing at the clerk.

"So he still hasn't found a girlfriend? I would have thought that there would have been at least one girl to accept his offer by now." May giggled.

"Can I help you three?"

I looked back and realized that the two people in front of the booth were gone and the lady was looking at us.

"Yes I was wondering if the ferry for Pallet has left yet." I asked her as we walked up to her.

"If you would give me one second I will find out." She asked as the clicking of keyboard keys started. "The ferry will be leaving in half-an-hour, would you like tickets?"

"Yes we would." I said as I reached down for my wallet. Dawn and May did as well, but as May got hers out of her pack her eyes widened.

"Wait a minute; we forgot to pay for our lunch!"

Dawn's eyes widened as well, "You're right! Oh man we're in big trouble now."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them. "Don't worry about it; I took care of the bill before I left."

They both relaxed instantly. "Thanks Ash." May spoke up, "to make up for it I'll take care of your ticket for you."

I was caught slightly off guard by the offer. "No don't worry about it May, it was my pleasure to treat you guys." I say with a smile.

"Aren't you going to go say anything Dawn?" She asked the coordinator.

"Hey he paid for my half of the bill, why would I complain?" Dawn asked as she pulled out the money for her ticket.

"But I'm still going to pay for your ticket Ash." May insisted walking up to the ticket booth.

Not wanting to be outdone by a girl, I put my hands on May's shoulders and gently pulled her away from the booth. "No May, just consider it my treat and leave it at that."

"Um if you say so Ash." She seemed to stutter a bit as she said that, and her face started to turn red again.

"May are you okay? You're face has turned red quite a few times today. Do you have a cold or something?" I asked her as I put my hand on her forehead. She didn't feel that warm, but as I did Dawn started to giggle and May's face only turned redder. She quickly turned away.

"Don't worry A..ash, I'm fine" I could hear her gulp. "But thanks for your concern." She added in a low whisper, I could barely hear it.

"No problem May, anytime." I say as I give her a big smile, she mumbled something that I couldn't understand as Dawn continued to giggle.

"_Must be some girl thing."_ I thought as I paid for and received my ticket.

* * *

Well, truthfully, I'm not really satisfied with how this chapter came out but as long as you guys liked it I guess that's all that matters. This fic will most likely have a bit more erratic update schedule unlike my other ones for one reason or another, so sorry in advance. And I have no clue how this is going to end; there are so many things I can do to make good clean fun with Ash. As always please review, thanks for reading!


	2. The Trip Home

Okay; well to start this off, congratulations. It looks like the reviewers have overruled the author. While I didn't really think that the last chapter was all that good, I was told otherwise by quite a few people. So I guess thank you would be the best thing to say right now. So here's chapter two for everyone, hope you like it.

* * *

After we got on to the Seagallop ferry the ship soon took off at top speed to the Pallet port. I spent most of my time watching the water go by through one of the windows. I would have preferred to be out on the deck but at the speeds that we were going at that would have been virtually impossible. I was enjoying my solitude when I suddenly found out that I wasn't alone.

"Hey Ash?"

At the sound of that voice I looked over my shoulder to see May standing there alone.

"Ya May? You need something?"

"Not really, I've just had things on my mind. Dawn has Pikachu now and is showing him off to the rest of the passengers. The women can't get enough of him." She laughed as she walked over towards me and I returned to watching the ocean. The trip was apparently taking a little longer than expected because the sun was setting out on the horizon.

"Ash? Actually there was something that I wanted to talk about." May said as she finally got behind me.

"Okay, shoot."

"Well I'm really sorry about your loss today. I heard from Dawn what that guy really is, and I know that it would make you want to defeat him even more. And I can only imagine how hard you trained to try and win that tournament, but on the bright side you finally made it to the top four. It's your best one yet, but then again that's not going to cheer you up enough right now."

"Thanks May, I know you're trying to cheer me up but it's already at the point where I'm the only one who can get me the rest of the way. You two already did more than enough for me to get me to this point and for that I'm grateful."

"Thanks Ash but there is one more thing that I want to talk to you about; it's about what happened in the trainer's room."

"Oh," I responded. I really didn't want to remember that scene right now. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to help me try to think of something else to help clear my mind of the incident. But only a second later I could feel someone leaning on my back. I looked back and saw that May was leaning on me with her arms on my back and her body on her arms.

"About that Ash." May started, her voice was soft, almost soothing in a way. "That was a part of you that I've never seen before. You were always very slow to anger and never lashed out at anyone before. But today you just tried to start a fight with someone who was just standing there."

As she talked I could hear that her voice was starting to crack and she started to sniffle at times. _"She's crying? Why would she be crying over something that I did? Especially when it was towards a person she has never met before."_

"What I saw today scared me Ash," she continued. "It really scared me. I didn't like seeing you like that. You were almost at a point where if I couldn't have seen your face I would never have guessed that it was you."

As I could feel the tears start to fall from her sapphire eyes, her arms slowly snaked their way around me to the point where she was then hugging me with her forehead resting on my back. I didn't know what to say at that point, this was unlike the hug she gave me earlier. Even though I knew it was different I couldn't place the exact reason why, but part of it might have been the fact that her chest was pressing up against my back at that moment. I would have thought that it would feel uncomfortable being that close to her but for some reason I didn't feel that at all. I felt a little embarrassed by the situation but it was overpowered by the notion that I didn't want to see her like this. But knowing that it would probably upset her to try and stop her, I let her continue.

"I hated seeing you like that, and I don't want to ever see it again." By now the tears were coming full force, but she still went on. "I want you to promise me something Ash. Promise me that you will never do anything like that again."

"May, I'm not sure if I…"

"Promise me Ash." She interrupted me with a little more forceful tone.

I couldn't stand seeing any of my friends like this, especially one who I consider to be my good luck charm. "Alright May, I promise."

She finally looked up at me, the tears starting to cease. "You mean it?"

"Yes May, I do." I gave my usual big smile to try and show that I meant what I said. Even if the promise might be broken later on, I would try my best to make sure that it won't happen again. Especially if this is the reaction that I would get if I did a repeat performance, but then again the reaction would probably be far worse than now that I gave my word.

"Thanks Ash." May finally said, drying her tears with her shirt. "You don't know how much that means to me."

"I'm glad May, but if you don't mind, could you get off of me?"

Turning red yet again she quickly let go of me. "Sorry, I...I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay. Now let's go find Dawn and Pikachu, we're probably not too far from Pallet."

"Right." She said while nodding. As she walked away I couldn't help but notice something and my mind kinda went blank as I just watched her walk towards the door. "You coming?"

Snapping out of that odd lull with my brain I shook my head a little. "Ya, I'm coming."

* * *

After rescuing Pikachu from the clutches of the many women that were only interested at how "cute" he was, we got ready to disembark from the ship.

Walking off the ship we were greeted by the many stars that were spread across the sky. With a warm breeze coming from the ocean, it made this night almost enjoyable.

"So where exactly is your house Ash?"

Looking back at my companions Dawn was the one looking at me while apparently May was amazed at the star display.

"It's only about a few minutes walk from here. Pallet may have its own port, but the town itself isn't big. We mostly just get people passing through to the rest of western Kanto."

"Good because I'm starving. I haven't had anything to eat since lunch. You think after paying all that money to get on the ferry they would have provided supper."

"Don't worry Dawn; my mom is an excellent cook. She even rivals Brock in that area, right May?" I looked over at her and saw that she was still staring at the stars. As I walked up to her I guess she didn't notice me as she closed her eyes seemingly concentrating on something. When I got close enough I could here her whisper something.

"This is so pretty, so romantic. If only… Yes, that would make tonight perfect."

"What would make tonight perfect?" I asked her. But she was lost in thought more than I was originally thinking because I could swear that she jumped five feet into the air.

"Ash!" She yelped as she fell backwards. Acting on instinct I grabbed her hand before she fell completely, and helped her back to her feet.

"You really shouldn't space out that much. Are you sure you're alright May? You've been acting weird ever since you come to Sinnoh."

"I'm perfectly fine, Ash." As she said this she began to walk in a seemingly random direction.

"Um May? My house is that way."

"Right, I knew that."

As she began to walk the correct direction, I could see Dawn trying to hold in her laughter about something. But she wasn't doing the best to hide it.

_"Is this how girls act when I'm not around? I'll never understand them."_

* * *

The rest of the walk back to my house was uneventful. Dawn was asking random questions about Kanto, everything from weather and temperature to Pokèmon and clothing stores. I was relived when my house finally came into sight. Even if it was only about five minutes it felt like an hour trying to answer all of Dawn's questions.

As we approached the front door, I went ahead of the two and walked right into the house.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu mimicked from his usual spot on my shoulder.

"Ash is that you?" I could hear her ask from what was probably the kitchen. Sure enough as I went further into the house she walked out of the kitchen. "I didn't expect you home for another week or so. Oh we have company."

"Sorry for barging in like this Mrs. Ketchum." May politely said with a small bow.

"Its no problem May, you're always welcome here." My mom replied. "And this must be Dawn."

"Yep!" The coordinator said with her usual energy. "And sorry to say this, but I hear that you are a good cook and I was wondering…"

"Let me guess, you three are hungry." Mom said with a laugh. Dawn was the only one who nodded her head but my mom knew that it wasn't just her. "Alright then I'll make some dinner for all of us. You girls can take a shower upstairs if you want, it'll be a while before everything is ready."

"Alright a nice warm shower! I call first dibs." Dawn called as she ran towards the stairs.

"She just took a shower at the Pokèmon Center this morning and she still acts this way. Wonder how long it will take for her to figure out where the bathroom is." I say as my traveling companion ran up the stairs. "Well guess we should just watch TV. Anything you like to watch May?"

"Nothing in particular, you can watch whatever you want to Ash."

I shrugged and went over to the couch to turn on the TV. May sat down on the other side of the couch and didn't say anything else the rest of the time.

After Dawn was finished with her shower, May went up to take hers. After about half an hour she came back down as well, and just in time too. Mom called us in to eat soon after May got to the bottom of the steps.

As per her usual routine Mom made quite the spread, it practically looked like a Thanksgiving meal.

"Sorry I couldn't do a better job for your welcome home feast Ash; if you would have called I could have gotten more."

"Don't worry Mom, this will be plenty." I say with a nervous chuckle, _"She always overdoes things when it comes to me coming or leaving."_

* * *

All of us ate our fill, Pikachu included. By the time we were done it was already 10:00. Not considerably late, but late enough to go to bed when you factor in all that happened today.

"Now about sleeping arrangements," my mom started as she began to clean up the table. We only have one guest bedroom so I'm sorry to say girls but either you can share that room or if one of you wants to the couch is also open."

"Don't worry Mom; I'll sleep on the couch. One of them can take my room, I don't mind." I spoke up as I stretched my arms a bit.

"Alright then, I'll take the guest room and May can take Ash's room." Dawn stated rather quickly.

"What? How come I'm the one to sleep in Ash's room?" May asked with the now all too familiar red tinge falling across her face.

_"I swear there is something wrong with her. But she keeps on insisting that she's fine."_ I find myself thinking. _"Maybe it's just something that she doesn't want to talk about. But then again we were never ones to keep secrets from each other."_

"What are you saying that Ash's room isn't good enough for you or something?" Dawn teased.

"No it's not that, it's just, it's just, well you know." May's face was turning even redder.

"May if you don't want to sleep in my room that's fine, it was just an offer." I spoke up trying to save her from one of Dawn's little jokes.

"No its okay Ash, I'll sleep there. It's just that, well never mind, I'm probably just tired." She gave a big yawn. "I'm just going to go to sleep, goodnight everyone."

"I'm heading up as well," Dawn said following May. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight you two." My mom said to them as she finished with the dishes.

"Goodnight." I repeated. After both of them went upstairs, I headed back into the living room to watch some TV before I went to sleep. Mom came in soon after turning off the lights to the kitchen behind her.

"You know Ash; you should be a little more observant." She said as she got to the stairs. "My little boy has grown up quite a bit in these last few years."

"Huh? What are you talking about Mom? Of course I've grown up."

"You may have grown up a little but you are still as clueless as always." She gave a smile and started up the stairs. "Goodnight honey."

"Goodnight Mom."

Turning off the TV and grabbing some blankets and pillows I finally prepared for sleep as well. Throwing off my sweatshirt and hat onto one of the adjacent chairs, I lay on the couch to try and fall asleep, but what my mom said to me didn't want to leave my head.

"Hey Pikachu, what do you think my mom meant when she said that thing about being more observant? I mean I'm always trying to see everything that my opponent would try pull on me, and I've been getting pretty good at predicting their moves. What do you think?" I ask my current sleeping partner, but as I look down at him he was just staring at me. Almost as if he hadn't even believed what I had just said.

"Pikachu pika, Pikapi."

"I guess you're right. Sleep would be good right now. Goodnight buddy."

"Pikachu."

* * *

Sometime during the night I apparently woke up. Looking up at the clock above the TV I couldn't make it out; I jumped off of the couch stretched a little. For some reason I started to head upstairs, the problem was I had no clue why I was doing this. It was almost as if I wasn't in control of my own body.

I made my way up the stairs, bounding up them with increased energy. As I got to the top it only took me a couple seconds to find where I wanted to go. The door wasn't closed all the way so I pushed it open slightly, squeezing myself inside. Looking across the dimly lit room I could see a small bed and two figures laying in it. Nimbly I jumped onto the bed waking its current residents. Now that I was close enough I could finally make out who they were, it was May and her Eevee.

"Well Eevee it looks like we have a guest. What are you doing up here?" I heard her say.

Without answering I just walked over next to her and Eevee and put myself next to them, squirming a little to get comfortable. I could hear her give a soft giggle as she started to stroke me, I could feel my body relax into her touch.

"Never mind then, guess we've just gained a sleeping partner Eevee. But if you're here I wonder if…" She gently shook her head. "No I shouldn't worry about that right now. I know how I feel and at the moment that's all that matters to me right now. It's always said that Pokèmon reflect their trainer's inner emotions. So maybe the chance still exists that he feels the same. _Yawn_. Goodnight Eevee, goodnight Pikachu."

Now was the time that I finally took account of the situation. _"Pikachu? Why did she call me Pikachu? And on that note, why am I here? Oh well, this is comfortable, too comfortable to stay awake."_

* * *

I woke up the next morning, still lying on the couch. Looking around I saw that the sun was just starting to peak through the window. Sitting up I could smell something cooking, Mom must have been making breakfast.

"Good morning Pikachu. Wait Pikachu?" I looked around and couldn't find the little Pokèmon anywhere.

_"Huh, I wonder where he ran off to. And what was with that dream I had last night. I don't really remember it all; something about chance…emotions…darn lost it. Oh well, it's not all that important. It was only a dream anyways."_

I stretched and grabbed my discarded clothes from last night. Putting them on I walked into the kitchen to see Dawn sitting at the table with my mom finishing up some sausage.

"Good morning everyone." I said as I took my usual seat on the table. "Has anyone seen Pikachu? He was with me last night and when I woke up this morning he was gone."

"No dear I haven't seen him." Mom stated as she put some more pancakes on the table. "Well good morning May."

I looked back to see May coming into the kitchen with Eevee and Pikachu on her shoulders.

"_Wait a minute, Pikachu?"_

"Good morning." She replied.

"Hey May, why is Pikachu with you?" I asked her as she sat down next to me.

"Oh, sometime last night he came up into your room. I was asleep with Eevee and he apparently just wanted to come sleep with us. So he's been with me the entire time."

"Why would he go up to sleep with you?" I wondered aloud. As I look around Mom and Dawn had smiles on their faces and were looking directly at May. The one on my mom's face wasn't all that different from her usual ones; but Dawn's smile, she had on 'that' smile. The same one that always scares me and it was keeping to its reputation; I could feel a chill run down my spine. Just by looking at her I knew she had something cooking in that mind of hers. Why I was so worried with the smile directed at May was beyond me. May must have also caught onto their glances.

"Why are you two staring at me like that?" The coordinator asked them in a nervous tone.

"No reason." The two women answered simultaneously. The current atmosphere was changing by the second, and I felt for some reason that I was the cause of it.

"So Pikachu slept with you last night May?" Dawn asked as my mom sat down at the table.

"Ya, is that such a big deal?" May carefully responded while grabbing some pancakes.

"No, not really. I was just thinking though, why would Pikachu wake up and move from where Ash was sleeping to where you were? I just can't come up with a good reason for it. What do you think May?"

"I would have no clue." May said looking down at her food. It seemed like with all this attention from Dawn her face to turning red yet again.

"_Now I'm really starting to wonder what's wrong with May. It can't be too natural for your face to red like that when you're not sick, especially this often."_

"Ya it really is a mystery I guess." Dawn continued. "In the end only Pikachu would know the reason why."

I looked up at her after she finished. _"For once Dawn actually had a good idea. I think I'll ask Pikachu about this when we are alone. But first this food is just too tempting."_

* * *

Well that would be chapter two, and unlike the last one I am satisfied about this chapter. I'm already starting to run low of my initial ideas for this fic, so the next chapter will be the one to take a while. Hope that everyone liked this chapter as much as my reviewers liked the last one. Thanks to everyone who gave their input so far, as I've said many times before I love to hear your opinions.


	3. The Weekend Excursion

Okay so after over a month's wait I finally get the inspiration to finish this darn thing. It wasn't easy I can tell you that. Without a clear idea of what to do it was easy to get distracted from this and do something else. But once I got my spark back I was able to get back at my normal speed and finish this in only a couple days. So here comes the long overdue chapter three.

* * *

I tried to eat as fast as I could to get out of the kitchen. The atmosphere that was being given off wasn't a very comfortable one. The girls were all making small talk and seemed cheerful enough, but it still didn't feel right.

"Thanks for the meal Mrs. Ketchum." May thanked my mom as she collected her plates. She seemed to be in a slight rush as she took the plates to the dishwasher and left the kitchen with Eevee close behind.

"Thanks for breakfast Mom." I said as I collected my empty plates a couple minutes after May did. "Come on Pikachu."

As I left the kitchen I could hear Pikachu bounding up behind me and scamper up my back and onto my shoulder.

"Pikachu, I think that we need to talk." I told him as I started to walk up the stairs to go take my morning shower. "And to start it off I think we can talk about what happened last night."

He just looked at me and closed his eyes as he shook his head a little.

"What? I have a right to know." I continue as I reach my bedroom door. "I just want to know why you left last night to sleep...with…May." As I open the door while talking to Pikachu I look up to see that there was someone else in my room. In my eagerness to find out why Pikachu left me last night I kinda forgot that my room wasn't entirely mine at the moment. The sight that I saw was May looking over her shoulder at me with a surprised look on her face, and that was about all she had on. I was staring straight at one of my best friends while all she had on were a pair of panties and a towel in one of her hands.

"Ash?" May questioned.

"I'm so sorry May!" I quickly got out as I raced back out into the hallway, closing the door behind me. Even though I was breathing heavily I could still hear Pikachu quietly laughing; no doubt at me and for some reason my face felt like it was on fire. "Hey that's not funny; I wasn't planning to start the day off with getting one of my best friends mad at me by walking in on her changing. I just hope that May will forgive me; either way I think it would be best if we left her alone for now. But don't think that I'm done questioning you just yet."

Calming down enough I made my way downstairs to find that both Mom and Dawn were gone, there was probably a note somewhere but I didn't bother looking for one. Walking over to the couch I sat down onto it and gave a big sigh. Pikachu dropped down onto my lap and gave a soft coo.

"Okay well that was unexpected and embarrassing. May's definitely not going to be happy with me after this."

"Ash?"

The sudden voice surprised me. Looking up I saw May dressed in a bath robe standing just at the bottom of the stairs. The sight of her made my face seem to heat up again.

"Would you mind if I sat down?" She asked.

"No, why would I?" I stuttered a little looking down at Pikachu, finding it hard to look her on the eye. _"Why is it so hard to talk to her right now? I mean I've seen her in a bathing suit many times, why was this time any different?"_

"May before you say anything I want you to know that I am very sorry for what happened, I never meant for it to…"

"Ash," she interrupted me. "Before you continue I just want to let you know that I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?" I was a little skeptical of her at that point, but as I looked back at her, her face was beginning to slowly turn red.

"I'm a little embarrassed about it but no, I'm not mad. Besides you really didn't see anything, right?"

"Right." I quickly said.

"So than there is nothing to be mad about. Actually with what just happened, I thought about it and I think that I should tell you something."

"And what would that be May?" I asked her, not really knowing what she was going to say next. I mean I just saw her like that and now she wants to tell me something? Whatever it was couldn't be good.

"Well Ash… For a while now I've been…umm." While May was trying to say what she wanted to say her face just started to grow even redder, she was also getting fidgety as she continued. "Ash, I want to tell you that I…would like to know if you also…would like to go shopping with me this afternoon." She finished up rather quickly.

It took a second to figure out exactly what she said. "Um, sure?"

"You will? Thank you Ash!" She exclaimed as she brought me into a hug. After about a second she quickly let go, the smile not leaving her face. "Well I better go take my shower."

As she left I could feel my face start to heat up again for some reason.

"Pi…ka…chu…"

"Well that's obvious; anyone could see that she likes me." I said back to him, but as I looked down I saw that he had an extremely surprised face. He was just staring at me wide eyed with his mouth agape. Not really knowing why he would be surprised by that I continued on. "Well it would be kinda bad if she didn't, we've been friends this long and it would be pointless to have a friend who doesn't like you."

His face instantly went from surprised to what looked to be either angry or annoyed, kinda hard to say. Needless to say he wasn't very happy for some reason, the question of why though eluded me.

"Pikachu, pipika kachu."

"In that case I guess you're right, I don't know exactly what you meant. First you're saying that she likes me and now you're saying that what I said was wrong. Make up your mind. On another note though, I wonder what May was really trying to say back there, it was kinda obvious that the mall wasn't exactly what she was originally aiming for. But then again, you might not have caught that. Some people wouldn't have noticed something like that; but then again I'm always being complimented on my observation skills." I finish proudly.

"Ka."

"Alright so maybe they don't actually compliment me on that, but I am fairly observant." Grabbing the remote I turn on the TV and start to click through the channels to try and find something good on. "It'll be a while before May gets done so we might as well find something good to watch until then."

* * *

After May finished her shower I was able to take mine. And then after finishing my shower and changing into some fresh clothes I came back down the stairs to find Pikachu and Eevee virtually asleep on May's lap as she watched some soap opera. Not wanting to disturb them at just that point I went into the kitchen to try and find the note that my mom probably left behind when she left.

Surprisingly I couldn't find a note, so for some reason her and Dawn just apparently just got up and left.

"Hmm, well this is odd." I said to no one as I took one last look around the kitchen.

"What's odd?"

I looked up to see May with the two Pokémon on her shoulders standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Mom and Dawn left and they didn't leave anything saying where they went. Usually my mom at least leaves a note or something around the kitchen before she leaves telling me where she went off to. So it looks like we're on our own for now."

"They probably were planning this from the start." May said with a sigh.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Uh nothing, we should start heading out to the mall now, otherwise it might become a little too crowded."

"Sure, if you say so May." I say as she grabbed my hand and started to pull me out of the kitchen and to the front door. "But why did you want me to come with you? Wouldn't Dawn have been a better choice? I mean she's the real shopping fanatic, not me."

She then seemed to stop pulling me after I said that. We stood there just outside the front door for a few seconds, not saying anything until May broke the silence. "Am I really that much of a burden on you?"

_"Oh man, I really screwed up with what I wanted to say didn't I? Is it just me or do girls always seem to take everything the wrong way?"_

"Of course not May, I would never think of you as a burden. All I was wondering was why did you choose me over everyone else?" I tried to reason with her.

"You really don't think that I'm a burden?" She asked while wiping her eyes.

_"Was she crying? I never thought that something like that would affect her this much."_

"I've never thought of you as anything close to a burden May, you should know that. I'm not exactly sure how you got it in your head that I thought that you were a burden on me though, but I can assure you that I've always enjoyed having you around."

Right after hearing that her original demeanor seemed to return in an instant. "Thanks Ash, I needed to hear that. Come on lets get to the mall." She said once again pulling me off.

_"So she goes from being cheerful to depressed and back to being cheerful again in the time span of only a minute. I'll never understand what makes women tick."_

* * *

After we got to the mall was when the horrors really started. I never did like to go shopping and this time was no exception. With May pulling me in and out of nearly every store imaginable I was just along for the ride. And being the gentleman that I was I had to offer to carry all of her bags, which by now were into the double digits and all of various sizes. While not overly heavy at the moment they were getting very cumbersome. Although for some strange reason even if I didn't like going around into all these shops, at the same time no part of me even wanted to complain. In fact if I didn't know better I would almost say that I was starting to enjoy going into these shops with May. That was what confused me the most.

"Come on Ash, they have another sale over in that store." May called as she waved her hand at me while I caught up to her. "Are you okay Ash? Those bags aren't too heavy for you are they?"

"No I'm fine May, these are nothing." I say back to her shifting the bags to get a better grip.

"If you say so Ash." She said giving a worried look, but soon shook it off. "Aren't we lucky that the mall has had so many different sales going on today? I've bought far more than I was originally planning but I'm still under the budget I set for myself."

_"As long as we can eat soon I don't care how much you buy May. It's been nearly five hours since breakfast."_

Almost as if on cue May's stomach growled right before we entered the next shop.

"Whoops, looks like the next stop after this store has just been decided." She said with a nervous laugh. "But we need to make sure that we see what's available here first." She finished as I was pulled yet again into another store.

"Can't we eat first and then return to shopping?" I pleaded, but needless to say it fell upon deaf ears as soon as she saw everything in the store.

* * *

Collapsing onto the bench I finally was able to sit down. After that one store May found another three to go into before finally remembering that she was hungry. So it was yet another hour before we finally made it down to the food court. My feet were killing me after standing with all of May's bags for nearly six hours. And more importantly my stomach was demanding to be fed, well I was in no mood to argue with it so as soon as we got to the food court our food was ordered and then I went to find a table while May waited for our food to arrive at the counter.

Feeling something missing I looked over at my shoulder to find that Pikachu still wasn't there. Ever since we got to the mall he was riding around on May's shoulder. While mine were filled with bags at the time it was still odd that he wouldn't have accompanied me back to the table.

_"He's spent so much time with May today and not me. I can understand that he would miss May but having him gone this long almost feels like a part of me is gone as well."_

"We're back!" I heard May's voice call out.

"Alright! So the food finally came…"

I stopped when I saw who she was with, and for some reason I felt a cold chill run down my spine as I saw them come over.

"Look who I found standing in line as well." May said with a large smile as she put our food down at the table.

"Hey Drew, it's been a while hasn't it?" I said as I held out my hand to shake his.

"It has been. Imagine my surprise to find May here of all places." Drew said back, shaking my hand in the process.

May came around the table and sat down beside me as Pikachu jumped down onto the table and started to devour some of the ketchup packets that he grabbed. Drew took a seat on the other side of the table, opposite of May.

"So Drew what brings you here?" I asked as we start to eat, still not comfortable with him being here at all.

"Well after the Grand Festival I had to make my way down here to catch the ferry back to Hoenn. By the time that I tried to buy a ticket to leave the Johto region after the festival they were already sold out for weeks ahead of time. So I had to walk to their next nearest port. On my way down here I saw the major sales going on at the mall so I decided to take a quick look." He said before finishing the last bit of his hamburger.

"Wow that is a coincidence." May said with a smile. "We came here for just the same reason, although I didn't know that there would be this many stores having sales."

"And how about you Ash?" Drew asked right after May finished. "Why are you here? You don't seem like the shopping type."

"May asked me to come along with her shopping today. So I've just been following her lead all this time. Definitely been getting my exercise though."

"Hey, you haven't complained yet. So why are you only just starting to now?" May said in an annoyed tone.

"You never asked."

Drew just seemed to be looking from May to me and back to May, apparently I wasn't the only one who caught that.

"Drew, do you think that I could talk to you in private for a few seconds? I have a couple of questions that I need to ask you." May asked getting up from her seat.

The green haired coordinator seemed to be caught of guard by the question. "Sure May what did you have in mind." He asked as he got up as well.

"I have a few things to add to our last conversation in Johto."

Drew seemed to understand immediately. "Alright, I'll try to help as best I can."

"We'll be back in only a few minutes Ash, and then we can get going again after you finish your food."

As I watched them leave I couldn't help but feel angry for some reason. Trying to ignore the feeling I turned my attention back to my food, still not fully satisfied with the situation.

"Pikachu Pikapi." Pikachu said as he continued to nurse his ketchup bottle.

"I am not jealous." I shot back at him. "What is there to be jealous of?"

"Pi…ka…"

"I don't care what you say, the fact remains that I am not jealous. It's hard for me to be jealous when there is nothing to be jealous of. May and Drew just went off to have a little bit of a talk. They are rivals after all, for all we know they just might be talking about strategies."

Pikachu then looked back at me with a serious look on his face. "Pi pika kachu pika chu?"

"Okay so maybe I don't actually believe that. But I still don't see how I'd be jealous of this."

Pikachu just shook his head and turned back to his ketchup. "Pikapika Pikapi."

"What do you mean I'm too dense?" I gave an exasperated sigh, "why does it seem like everyone knows something that I don't?"

When I didn't get an answer back form Pikachu I just dropped the subject. It was obvious that he wasn't going to actually tell me anything else. Grabbing my shake I started to finish it off while having a little conversation with myself.

_"There's no way that I could be jealous, he's just playing with me. I mean I like May as a friend, but why would I be jealous of her leaving with Drew? It's not like I'm her only friend."_ As I finished my shake something just seemed to pop into my head. _"Why am I worrying about this so much?"_

But before I could really get into that thought May returned, without Drew.

"Huh, where's Drew?" I asked without thinking.

"And here I thought that you actually didn't want him around." She joked as she took her seat right next to me again. "He had to catch his ferry soon, so he had to leave."

"Is that so?"

"And I also wanted to spend the rest of the day just with you."

Grabbing a few more fries I stopped to look at her. "Why's that?" I ask before putting them into my mouth.

"No reason." May said with a big smile. "Now we should finish up here, there are still several shops that I want to visit before we go back."

* * *

So that would be the end of that chapter. A little shorter than usual but its better to have two shorter chapters than one gigantic chapter. I can tell you right now that the next update will be coming out in a couple days, as per my usual update schedule. As always please review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	4. What is Love?

And this would be the last chapter of this little series. I won't say much more beyond that right now, except thanks for everyone who has reviewed this story so far.

* * *

When May said several shops she wasn't kidding. We spent another five hours at the mall before finally leaving. On the walk home I was overloaded with even more bags than I could count, and unlike before this time everything was actually heavy. Not to mention Pikachu yet again stayed with May on the way back and she talked with him the entire way. Well it was probably more of a one sided dialogue as she couldn't understand him, but she was making him laugh enough that the language barrier really wasn't necessary.

I was relieved when I could finally see my house on the horizon. When we got up to the door I could smell a wonderful scent coming from inside the house. May opened the door and we walked in. Wanting to ditch the bags as soon as possible I set them inside the living room, trying not to break some of the fragile items that May bought, while I just dropped myself onto the couch.

"We're back!" May called over to the kitchen, where my mom was most likely making yet another large feast.

"Welcome back you two." I could hear my mom say. "Dinner will be ready in just a couple minutes."

May came back and joined me on the couch as I just sat there resting my eyes after the long and tedious day, I could also feel something warm and furry climb into my lap and get comfortable. I started to pet the little ball of fur and could hear him coo as I did, but my peace was interrupted when Dawn came into the room as well. I stopped petting Pikachu as soon as I heard Dawn's voice.

"So May how did your little date with Ash go?" I could hear her ask.

_"Date?! Since when was that considered a date?"_ But I didn't say anything out loud. If anything she may have thought that I was asleep already, so I just continued to listen in. Who knows, maybe I could learn a couple reasons on why these two have been acting so weird lately.

"Dawn this isn't the time to talk about something like this, and it wasn't a date." I could hear May respond.

"Oh come on he's fast asleep, he can't hear anything we say. Whenever I've taken him shopping before he always falls asleep right when we get back. So were you able to ask him if…"

"Dawn! He's not asleep."

I could then feel someone jab me in the side with a finger. "Ouch, hey that hurts you know." I said while rubbing where I got poked and finally looking up at the two girls. May was once again red in the face and not really looking at me while Dawn had a little bit of a surprised look on her face.

"Hmm, so he is. Well that still doesn't answer my question."

"Alright everyone food is ready!" My mom called to us, "and this time we can have the true 'welcome home' feast."

"Well you heard Mrs. Ketchum, time to eat." May said quickly getting up and heading into the kitchen.

"You can't hide it forever May! I'll learn sooner or later!" Dawn called as she too went into the kitchen.

"Come on Pikachu we need to eat as well." I say to my friend as he jumped onto my shoulder. After the entire day with him gone from his usual perch it felt good for everything to be back to normal again. "Good to have you back buddy, now let's get some of mom's cooking.

Walking into the kitchen I saw that my mom wasn't lying when she said that this would be a real "welcome home" feast. It wasn't as good of a spread as last night's meal but it included all of my favorites, several plates of hamburgers and hot dogs, lots of side dishes, and even a big chocolate cake to go with it. Although the chocolate cake had something written on it in blue icing, it read "Congratulations Ash and May."

"You think that you might have overdone it a little Mom?" I ask as I sit down in between May and Dawn, who by now have already grabbed platefuls of the delicious looking food.

"That's never been a problem before honey and I doubt that it will be this time around. So eat as much as you want, just make sure that you save room for some cake at the end."

"Speaking of which, what's with that cake? Congratulations for what?"

"Oh, shouldn't it be obvious? It's for you two finally becoming…"

"Becoming such great trainers and placing so high in your tournaments." Dawn interrupted. Mom took a look at Dawn but for some reason nodded with a sad look on her face.

Shrugging I grabbed a plateful of my own and got some food for Pikachu as well. Throughout the entire dinner I could feel the stare that Dawn was giving either me or May. Every once and a while she would look over in our direction at just stare at us. Why I'm not really sure but it still wasn't too comfortable, at least it wasn't that smile that she usually gives.

_"Maybe it has something to do with what they were talking about in the living room earlier."_ I found myself thinking as time went on. _"Why did Dawn think that May and I went on a date today? Does May really like me more than a friend? No, I'm probably just looking too far into this. Dawn loves to make fun of things like this. Most likely that's just the reasoning here as well."_ Leaving it at that I continued eating, but there was still a small voice in my head that still wanted to argue. It was so faint that it was barely a whisper._"And what if its not?"_

* * *

After supper we sat in the living room again watching TV. About half an hour before everyone was planning to go to sleep the phone rang.

"I wonder who that could be this late at night." My mom wondered out loud. She got up to go answer it and disappeared into the kitchen. "Hello? ... Oh Caroline how nice it is to hear from you again. … Sure, May is right here, I'll go get her." My mom then popped her head out of the kitchen. "May your mother is on the phone. She wants to talk to you."

May gave me a slightly confused look as she went towards the kitchen to receive the call, I could only guess that she had no clue why her mom was calling. May talked a little softer than my mom so after the initial peppy "Hi Mom, what do you need?" I wasn't able to make out what she was saying during the entire phone call. But when she returned to the living room her mood had changed completely. It wasn't that hard to see through what little front she tried put up.

"May what's wrong?" I finally asked her as she sat down again.

"Huh? Oh, is it that easy to tell? I never really have been all that good at hiding things from you, have I? It's about what my mom said to me on the phone." She took a deep breath before continuing. "She wants me to come home right away. In fact she's even ordered me a ticket for the ferry tomorrow morning."

I could feel an odd pain start to grow in my chest. "Why does she want you to come home?"

"That's the thing, I'm not really sure myself. All my mom said was that there were a few family issues that needed to be taken care of back home and that she needed me back as soon as possible. So I guess I now have an early start tomorrow, so I think that I'm going to be going to bed. I'll see you all in the morning." As she finished off she was already heading upstairs towards my room.

As I looked around the room both my mom and Dawn had confused looks on their faces. So at least I wasn't alone in the fact that May seemed a little more upset than she was letting on.

"I guess we should be getting off to bed as well. Come on Dawn, if May has an early day tomorrow then it looks like we have to get up early as well to make a nice breakfast for her." My mom said as she got up and headed for her bedroom.

"Right, goodnight Ash." Dawn added heading up to her room.

"Goodnight Dawn, goodnight Mom."

After they left I once again grabbed a couple of blankets and pillows to get ready to sleep out on the couch.

"I hope May will be alright Pikachu." I say as he cuddled up next to me. "I just don't like seeing her like that. Hopefully everything will be better by tomorrow. Goodnight Pikachu."

* * *

Once again I woke up in the middle of the night, but this time I found myself in a large bed in between two bodies. Looking down at my own body I saw that I was covered in yellow fur and shapely tail. It didn't take long for the realization to hit me,

_"Again? Didn't I just have an out-of-body experience last night? What is it with me these days? This is the second straight night that I've had this type of dream; actually come to think of it I've never had these dreams until May joined us again and we came home."_ Thinking on it a while I came up with no real correlation._ "Oh well might as well make the best of this."_

Stretching a bit I walked over to the foot of the bed and prepared to jump down, but before I did I heard some mumbling. It was coming from one of the bodies that I was sleeping in between. Looking back on them peaked my interest of who these people actually were. Walking back over to the two sleeping figures I took a closer look at them. In the dim light of the room I couldn't make much of their features out, but they seemed so familiar. I could tell that one of them was a guy with black messy hair and the other was a woman with long brown hair. As I tried to get a closer look at the woman's face she seemed to stir in her sleep.

_"I guess they must be some friends of mine or something. It's probably best to just let them sleep. Besides if they wake up I might as well, and then I might forget being like this. I just hope I can remember this one after I wake up. For some reason I don't remember too much about last night's dream. Hopefully I get to have a little bit of fun while I'm in here. It's not everyday that I get to walk around as a Pokémon."_

Jumping off the bed I headed towards the door and exited the room. Looking down the hallway I realized that I was in a house that I didn't recognize, but there seemed to be many plaques that adorned the walls, filled with many different ribbons and badges from nearly every region. _"Wow, whoever lives here must have been a really good trainer to get all of these awards."_ I found myself thinking as I walked down the hallway.

Further down on the right hand side I could see a door that was slightly ajar. For some reason I felt like I was being drawn to this room as I slowly walked closer. Poking my head through the door I looked in to see what appeared to be a child's room. Through the full moon outside I could make out two cribs, one on each side of the room. I could also see what appeared to be a gigantic pile of Pokémon dolls, but some of the most prominent were sitting up on top of a shelf over the window. Walking into room I could make out the exact Pokémon that those dolls represented, there were quite a few of them sitting up there; Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Typhlosion, Blaziken, Torterra, and an Infernape. They all seemed to be looking down over the room as I continued further into it. As I walked into the center of the room I could hear a voice coming from one of the cribs. With my interest peaked yet again, I walked over to the crib and nimbly jumped up onto a dresser sitting right next to it.

Now looking down on the crib I could see a young child, not more than a year old, starting to stir in its sleep. I jumped into the crib to get a better look. As I got closer the child seemed to get more restless, but when I got close enough that he accidentally brushed up against my fur he instantly grabbed on and pulled me into a hug.

I struggled only briefly as I was pulled into the sleeping child's grasp. While not fully comfortable with the new position of this unknown child squeezing the life out of me, I could tell that he had calmed down at the same time as I became a type of warm plush toy for him. Not wanting to disturb the child I just let him continue to hold me. After a few seconds of this went by I could see a figure walk into the room and look over into the crib that I was in. In the light of the room I could tell that this was probably the woman from before, no from her smell I knew that she was the woman from before. It wasn't a bad smell, but more of a relaxing and soothing smell. I probably wouldn't have noticed it to this degree without Pikachu's sensitive nose but either way I enjoyed it.

Walking over to the crib and looking into it I could now make out her facial features. Her face seemed so familiar to me but I just couldn't place it. Yet what I noticed the most were her beautiful sapphire colored eyes as she looked down on me and the baby. Resting her arms on the side of the crib she started to whisper. "So that's where you went off to Pikachu. We were wondering where you ran off to, you usually stay right in between us for the whole night." She said with a smile. "Guess you just wanted to give this little guy some company. I was about to come and calm him down myself, but apparently you beat me to it."

She bent down and gave the baby a kiss on the cheek and then one on mine as well, she then got up and went over to the other crib to give a kiss to the child in that one. "Goodnight you three, we'll see you in the morning."

Unable to easily get myself free from the death grip of this child I decided that I might as well try to fall asleep here. I probably could have gotten free if I tried enough but that would have resulted in waking the baby and then a whole mess would be following close behind.

Yawning I just brought myself closer to the child, enjoying his warmth as much as he was enjoying my own. It only took a few seconds but I could feel myself start to drift off.

* * *

Opening my eyes yet again I found myself back in the living room with the clock reading three in the morning. Looking down I could see Pikachu still curled right up next to me. With the dream still fresh in my head I started to pet him, in response he cooed softly and moved unconsciously into my touch.

_"I wonder what that dream was all about? That woman seemed so familiar and yet I can't really place how I know her. Actually she seemed somewhat similar to…"_

"Ash?" I heard a soft voice call out. "Are you awake?

Looking up from Pikachu I saw May at the bottom of the steps wearing her usual nightgown.

"I'm awake May." I say back to her. "Do you need something?"

"I was wondering if I could sit down here with you for a while." She asked while walking over.

"Sure no problem." I sat up putting the sleeping mouse on my lap to make room for her. As she sat down I could tell that something was still bothering her, most likely the fact that she had to return home in only a few short hours. Even though it really wasn't my business, I decided to ask anyways. "Is there something bothering you May?"

She just shook her head. "No not really, but it's just the thought of having to go home so soon after we met back up."

"You know you can always come back, it's not that long of a ride from here to Hoenn."

As I said that she looked back at me and gave a big smile, looking at her smile brought back the memories of the woman from my dreams for some reason. "Thanks Ash, you always know what to say to cheer me up. Would you mind if I spent the rest of the night down here with you?"

The question caught me by surprise quite a bit; I wasn't really sure how I should respond to her. So I took the easy route of just agreeing with her. "Sure, if you want to May that's fine by me."

"Thanks Ash." She then moved closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder. Needless to say I was more than just a little surprised by her action.

"Um May?"

"You don't mind do you Ash?"

"Not really, I guess."

After I said that she seemed to relax into me even further. I on the other hand didn't make much of a move at all. It wasn't that I was uncomfortable or anything, quite the opposite in fact, it's just that this position was new to me and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to act in this situation considering that we were just friends. We stayed like that for a few minutes before she spoke up again.

"You know Ash there has been something that I've been wanting to tell you for a while now."

"You have? And what would that be?"

I really didn't think anything of it. But the next three words that came out of her mouth nearly made my heart stop. "I love you Ash. I'm not sure when it started or when it turned completely into love and for some time now I've been wanting to tell you that, but I have been too afraid to actually tell you. I even needed to get advice from Drew on multiple occasions on how I should say this. He wasn't too happy when he first learned that it was you who I loved, but he gave me some very good advice after he accepted it. If it wasn't for him I don't think that I would have the courage to be able to tell you."

_"She loves me? I wonder if that's the reason she's been acting weird these last few days."_

"I didn't think that we would be needing to part ways again anytime soon so I thought that I could continue to put it off before I could finally tell you, but now that I have to go home the possibility of not seeing you again came up once again and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to tell you before I left. Right now I don't really care how you respond to my feelings, all I want is to spend some more time with you Ash."

Not really sure of how to respond to her but knowing that I didn't want to hurt her feelings in any way I just smiled down at her and gave May my response. "If that's what you want right now, then I won't do anything to stop you."

"Thanks Ash. You really are the best friend anyone could ever ask for. I'm glad that you are the one that my heart decided on."

Looking back down at her to give a response I was cut off before I could say anything. As I turned my head May leaned up and kissed me, right on the lips. Once again I had no idea what to do. That being said, what I did know was that this felt good, so I didn't it resist one bit. I would have to say that that one moment of my life felt like a lifetime in itself, but after only a couple of seconds she pulled back.

And with that she wrapped her arms around me and her breathing started to slow as she placed her head back onto my shoulder. "May?" No response. _"So she's asleep already. This must have been on her mind for a while now, but I wonder exactly since when."_

Using my free hand I touched the place where her lips were just a moment ago, still trying to figure out if that actually happened. My lips were tingling slightly; then again my entire body felt like it was, not just my lips. It was an odd sensation, something that I had never felt before. But this sensation was also surprisingly pleasurable, my whole body seemed to relax as the sensation slowly disappeared. I couldn't help but let a smile form on my face.

Grabbing the blanket I put it around us, with Pikachu still asleep in my lap. _"So she loves me of all people. But I wonder, do I love her? Then again a better question, what is love? I've never really even thought about it until now, and before I can answer the first one I need to know the second. I really don't know how I feel right now, but if this is what will make May happy, if only for a moment, I'll be willing to accept that."_ Feeling sleep once again coming upon me I unconsciously rested my head on top of hers as my arm slowly snaked around her waist pulling her a little closer. I'm not sure exactly why I did that, but with the warmth of her body added to the strange sensation of her body touching mine, it just seemed like the most comfortable and natural position that I could be in at that moment. As I did a vaguely familiar smell greeted my nostrils. It wasn't a bad smell, but more of a relaxing and soothing smell. Either way if I had to put a single word on it, it would have to be this, enjoyable.

* * *

So this thing finally comes to an end. I just hope that everyone liked the ending. This was probably my favorite chapter in this fic, partially because I felt my full inspiration come back while I was writing this one. And as a side note, I felt that I should at least use Drew in a non-antagonistic part at least once, after all the hell that we put him through even he disserves a little bit of a leeway from time to time. Hope everyone liked this fic, and as always I'll be looking forward your reviews.


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